- The Central Franconian municipal hospital group ANregiomed has contracted Siemens Healthineers und Dräger to supply and manage the medical equipment in all three of its hospitals
- The ten-year partnership covers the provision of diagnostic imaging systems, training and continuing education for hospital staff operating the equipment, and advising on approaches to personnel recruitment and long-term commitment
- Dräger will take charge of the biomedical equipment and supply devices for anesthesia, ventilation, and monitoring
- The order volume is valued in the mid double-digit million range
This new technology partnership kicked off September 1, 2022, marks the first time that Siemens Healthineers is collaborating with a municipal medical service provider to implement a concept it has successfully pursued internationally with major networked healthcare providers and full-service hospitals.
The scope of this technology partnership will see Siemens Healthineers supply all ANregiomed locations over the next ten years with the technical medical devices and systems they need for diagnostic imaging and image-guided intervention, service this equipment, and ensure all systems keep pace with the state of the art over the full term of the agreement. Dräger, another technology partner in the agreement, will also provide and maintain medical devices in particular in the fields of anesthesia, ventilation, and monitoring.
Siemens Healthineers assumes overall responsibility for the agreement, and will prepare and implement jointly with ANregiomed an innovation and optimization project every year of the partnership. These projects will encompass, for example, telemedicine for communication between the hospital locations and cooperation partners, or a digital user platform to make information available on increasing efficiency, optimizing processes, and improving patient interaction. The partnership also includes training and continuing education of hospital staff as well as advising on approaches to recruiting personnel and gaining their long-term commitment, such as Siemens Healthineers itself successfully practices.
Initially concluded for a ten-year term, ANregiomed also has an option to extend the contract for an additional five years.
"This technology partnership marks the opening of a new chapter in our cooperative partnering with healthcare providers and other collaborating firms in the medical technology industry," explains Dr. Bernd Ohnesorge, President for Europe, Middle East & Africa at Siemens Healthineers. "A model that has already functioned very well worldwide with major networked healthcare service providers and full-service hospitals we now want to successfully further develop jointly with ANregiomed based on the needs of this regional healthcare provider. We also want patients in our region to benefit from their close proximity to our global development centers in Erlangen and Forchheim."
The company Dräger TGM GmbH will take charge of supplying the entire biomedical equipment scope at the three ANregiomed locations and their affiliated medical care centers. All told, this scope of supply and services comprises some 6,500 devices. Dräger will also provide patient monitoring, ventilation, and anesthesia devices as well as infusion pumps and endoscopic instruments. Dräger will integrate all equipment operators at an early stage so that new devices can be put to use as seamlessly as possible.
"Smooth operation of all medical devices is important to enabling adequate care of patients. Even if this is our field of expertise, good collaboration with the equipment operators on equal terms plays an essential role. For example, our colleagues closely coordinate with ANregiomed employees to ensure uniform standards are applied in the operation and maintenance of medical devices and the handling of any fault messages or reports. We thereby help to make their routine hospital procedures and daily work easier and more pleasant. They have more time for their patients, and patient stays in the hospitals can be made even safer," says Bernhard Schenk, managing director of Dräger TGM GmbH.
The ANregiomed hospital group expects to reap an enormous boost in technology from the partnership, while significantly reducing overall costs. As many systems will be replaced already within the first 18 months, compensation for investment outlays will come quickly. This will improve the quality and process workflows of medical care due in part to the fact that, thanks to the shorter examination times and more modern equipment, the radiation exposure of patients is reduced to an absolute minimum. Standardizing the medical equipment throughout the entire hospital group will also enable cross-location deployment of personnel without need for additional time-consuming technical training.
"The use of state-of-the-art technology makes a hospital particularly attractive for employees in all medical occupational groups. In light of the fact that, for us as well – like many other hospitals – it will become steadily more difficult in future to recruit and keep specialized medical staff, we're working directly to counter this shortage of qualified personnel," notes ANregiomed CEO Dr. med. Gerhard M. Sontheimer, with conviction. "By implementing this project, our municipal company is breaking fresh ground. We've managed to convince two world-renowned partner companies to stand shoulder to shoulder with ANregiomed moving forward: technically outfitted to the state of the art, offering a medical portfolio of the highest standard, both outpatient and inpatient, for patients in the city and district of Ansbach who count on us a their most important healthcare service provider."
